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<p><font face="Verdana">Brilliance Auto, the seventh largest auto maker in China in terms of sales, aims to double its sales revenue to reach 80 billion yuan ($11.7 billion) in 2010, the company said Thursday.</font></p><p><font face="Verdana">Qi Yumin, board chairman of the company, said Thursday that the automobile industry would see opportunities in light of the government-planned stimulus measures to boost the ailing sector.</font></p><p><font face="Verdana">The government will lower the purchase tax on cars under 1.6 liters from 10 percent to 5 percent from January 20 to December 31 and earmark 10 billion yuan as a special fund in the coming three years to support auto companies to upgrade technologies.</font></p><p><font face="Verdana">It will also provide one-off allowances to farmers to upgrade their three-wheeled vehicles and low-speed trucks.</font></p><p><font face="Verdana">"The home brands will benefit a lot from these measures," Qi said.</font></p><p><font face="Verdana">The company sold more than 285,000 vehicles last year and saw a sales revenue of 41 billion yuan. It expects to sell 500,000 vehicles and 500,000 engines in 2010.</font></p><p><font face="Verdana">The company began the construction of a factory, which would be able to produce 150,000 vehicles annually, with an investment of 3 billion yuan last week in Shenyang, capital of the northeastern Liaoning Province.</font></p><p><font face="Verdana">The factory alone is expected to add 15 billion yuan to the company's sales revenue every year, according to Qi.</font></p><p><font face="Verdana">Chinese auto makers reported a 6.7-percent rise in sales in 2008 compared with the previous year, the lowest rise in 10 years, according to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.</font></p><p><font face="Verdana">The industry group expected the growth rate of auto sales to drop to 5 percent this year as consumer confidence waned with a slowing economy.</font></p><p><font face="Verdana">(China Daily)</font></p> |
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